Scrapbook for November 2018

Posted on UTC 2018-11-01 02:01

28.11.2018 – More Envy of the World™

We could run a piece on the Envy of the World™, the British National Health Service, every day, but were we to do that, we – and our readers – would end up as barking mad as the said National Treasure itself.

Doctors had been prescribing gluten-free pizza bases, Battenberg cakes and custard creams to patients with digestive disorders such as coeliac disease, which affects up to one in 100.

Apparently, doctors will be told to 'stop wasting money' by prescribing gluten-free junk food. They should prescribe only gluten-free 'staples' such as bread and flour mixes. Why does one person in a hundred need to be prescribed a loaf of bread, let alone a packet of custard creams?

The guidelines are part of an ongoing crackdown on 'low priority' items to ensure there is more money for cancer care, A&E units and mental health.

There will never be enough money for anything in this soupkitchen. There certainly needs to be some mental health outreach, starting with this Moloch's deranged supporters.

27.11.2018 – InSight lands on Mars

Pleased to hear of the successful landing of the InSight lander on Mars. So far everything seems to be working as planned.

For us the news represents the latest instalment of the nemesis that has followed the hubris of the dismal failures of the previous UK/European attempts to land a probe on Mars: Beagle-2 and Schiaparelli. Both those projects (particularly the first) were accompanied from the outset by foolish boasting and unfavourable comments about NASA; when they ended in disaster there was much Panglossian denial.

There will be readers who are happy if they can remember where they left the corkscrew. The following puzzle is not for them (keep on searching).

Can the swots among you identify the countries whose flags these are? The flags are all the annoying three-bar design without any other emblem. And, no, aspect ratios aren't accurate.

Hovering the cursor over the image will display a tooltip with the name of the respective country.

13.11.2018 – Good idea, Angela!

The Interior Minister and leader of the CSU in Germany, Horst Seehofer, announced on Monday 12 November that he would like to possibly think about maybe resigning as leader of his embattled party sometime soon perhaps. He would like to stay on as Interior Minister, though. Probably – or even perhaps most likely.

In this he is following the wise example of his boss, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who decided, with a tad more decisiveness admittedly (but only a tad), that she at some point later in this year may perhaps possibly not stand as leader of her party – but continue as Chancellor, of course. Until the twelfth of never, it seems, which is indeed a long, long time. For both of them. And us.

Remember: Nothing.Ever.Changes in German politics.

11.11.2018 – Our aspen

Getting ready for winter (taken on 09.11.2018).

The fungi have also been doing their reproductive thing in the permanent shade of a crack in its trunk since the first week in October.

Its dominant role in the landscape and its exposure can be seen from across the valley, 2.5 km away. The aspen is 1057 m, the standpoint 1271 m above sea level, pointing NNW (taken on 10.11.2018).